IBM – Modern Day Alchemy

IBM engineers have invented a unique, eco-friendly way to recycle scrap silicon “wafers” -the base material used for chips in everything from computers to consumer electronics – and is making it available to the solar energy industry to produce solar panels. The new process has dual advantages for the environment, as it will help reduce the estimated 3 million silicon wafers discarded each year across the computer industry, while also providing new supplies of raw materials to the supply-constrained solar energy industry.